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A B S T R A C T Dropping out of high school culminates a long-term process of disengagement from school and has profound social and economic consequences for students, their families, and their communities. Students who drop out of high school are more likely to be unemployed, to earn less than those who graduate, to be on public assistance, and to end up in prison. The present study examined dropout rates in Kentucky high schools ( N = 196), using both quantitative and qualitative procedures. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were computed to identify those school-level variables that showed strong relationships to dropout rates. A sample of 20 schools with the highest dropout rates was compared to a sample of 20 schools with the lowest dropout rates using a multivariate analysis of variance. Furthermore, 4 schools from each group were selected as case examples. Information gathered from administrator surveys, staff interviews, and on-site observations provided detailed descriptions of the characteristics of schools with high and low dropout rates. The findings of this study demonstrated that a number of school variables are differentially related to dropout rate. Implications of these findings for school reform are discussed.

The individual education program (IEP) is of critical importance to educators, parents, and students. Through the IEP process school-based teams (a) assess the educational needs of a student, (b) develop meaningful and measurable goals that direct the student's program, (c) develop and implement a program of special education and related services, and (d) monitor the student's progress toward his or her goals. Our purpose in this article is to review the legal requirements in developing, implementing, and evaluating the IEP; examine the research that has been conducted on IEPs; and discuss the implications of the law and research for school-based teams in developing IEPs.When the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act (EAHCA) was enacted in 1975, the law mandated that participating states provide students with disabilities with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). To ensure that eligible students received an appropriate education, Congress required that all students have an individualized education program (IEP) developed to meet their unique educational needs. According to Zettel and Ballard (1982) Congress concluded that the IEP requirement was crucial if the purposes of the EAHCA were to be achieved. In fact, one of the principle writers of the EAHCA, Senator Robert Stafford (1978), stated that the IEP was "the central part of this Act as we wrote it and intended it to be carried out" (p. 72).The IEP is of critical importance to educators, parents, and students. It serves the purpose of directing and monitoring all aspects of a student's special education program. The IEP document contains the educational needs of a student, the measurable annual goals that direct his or her program, the special education programming and placement, and the method of Correspondence should be sent to Christine A. Christle,

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